Hello fellow OS'ers,
I will start this tutorial by saying I am far from an expert at playing 2K. There are tons of players and members of this site that are way better than I am and probably better authorities on the subjects I'm about to speak on. So with that said, I humbly offer my take on how to play tough lock down on ball defense and cut down the number of points scored on you in the paint.
I must start this discussion with a brief chat about difficulty level. I know many of the HOF enthusiasts will probably disagree with some of the things I say but hey, it's cool man, I'm just speaking from my point of view and experience with the game. Some of these things, I have spoken directly to the developers about and others came from hours of controller throwing moments that I became determined to overcome. So, here it goes......
The default level is Pro for a reason. This is the level at which the developers tune the game. All of the players have their ACTUAL RATINGS and they aren't boosted at all except during the game as the action happens.
Now, for every level you go up in difficulty, ONLY THE CPU's team gets a 5 to 7 point ratings boost in several categories. So by the time you get to HOF, a 70 rated player is more along the lines of an 85 to 90 rated player. Difficulty levels are created for a challenge not realism.
Here is the logic..... because you are a human that can see more of the court than the player you are controlling is actually capable of, the user gains some sort of advantage. As they become more familiar with the game's programming and start to find what works vs the cpu and how to exploit those things, they gain and even bigger advantage. Making the cpu players play WAY above their natural abilities to try to level the playing field is what the difficulty adjustments are for.
While players still have the same TENDENCIES, their abilities with those tendencies are extremely exaggerated and unrealistic for the sake of challenge. Again, the players still do the things they are suppose to do but much better success rates than they are supposed to have doing them.
Some guys are so familiar with the programming of the game, and so autonomous with the controller, they have the ability to manipulate the cpu into a "normal" game-flow because of their impact on the action of the game itself. So, they need the cpu players to have superhuman abilities to have a challenge.
Having said that, the most realistic difficulty setting is Pro. The most challenging is obviously HOF. I can beat the game on HOF regularly and convincingly but actually play the game on Pro and have the most realistic simulations when I play the game that way. I don't do anything unrealistic while playing and play the game on 12 mins and control all aspects of my team from coaching adjustments, to substitutions. I also play on default simulation sliders with no slider adjustments whatsoever.
Now to the meat and potatoes, if you want to cut down the points in the paint and play better defense, you have to do a few things.......
1. Learn your personnel.
Who has the on ball defense to guard the person you are trying to stop from penetrating? Who on your team has high defensive awareness ratings? Who has low defensive awareness ratings? You have to know this because you want to back off of a penetrator and use the right stick shading to force him into your help defenders. Look behind your defender and see where the open lane is. You want to send the ball handler AWAY from the open space and into your help. The players with higher Def AWR ratings will be better at helping if you get beat.
2. Check your help defense slider in coaching settings.
If you set the help defense slider higher, players will leave their assignments and help as a priority. Players with lower Def AWR ratings don't do this very well no matter how high you put your help slider. They might help when it's not needed or simply not help at all.
3. Check your off ball defense slider in coaching settings.
If you set this slider to a higher number, off ball defenders on your team will play tighter on the players they are guarding who don't have the ball. If you have this set at 100, the help has a farther distance to travel to help when you get beat.
4. Check your on ball defense slider in coaching settings.
If you set this slider to a higher number, players will close out tighter on the players who have the ball and generally play tighter defense over all. Higher slider number means MORE PRESSURE. The tighter your defenders play, the more they rely on their on ball defense ratings to prevent the drive.
5. Check your defensive settings.
You can go in and set individual assignments for particular players on the other team. REMEMBER!!! The overall slider in coaching settings is the team slider. This is the base setting for everyone on the team. So if you select "Play Tight" your defender will play as tight as your coaching slider says you want them to play. They will prevent the jump shot but be more vulnerable against the drive. If you set it to "Moderate" they will give a little cushion so they can contest jumpers but still have time to react to the drive. If you set to "Sag off" they will give up the jump shot and it will give you the most reaction time against the drive.
6. Know your defender's on ball defense rating and how to use it.
Players with higher on ball defense ratings create more contact on ball handlers when they try to drive past you preventing them from driving altogether. Tony Allen will pretty much shut anyone in the game down from driving if you play defense right. The way you use your on ball defense rating is similar to a shooting rating. It's all about the release point. The left trigger is your small defensive adjustment trigger. This allows you to limit your movement enough to be in perfect position to activate your on ball defense score. When a ball handler begins to drive past you, let go of the left trigger and initiate contact. Players with higher ratings have more success at this than lower ones. Try it, it works. Also, while the left trigger is engaged, you can engage the right trigger against the quicker guards to cover ground quicker without over shooting the man. Cover the ground to get back in position and the then let go at the right release point.
7. Play on ball defense like football, not air hockey.
If you aren't in position to initiate on ball defense, back peddle! It's better to back up toward the goal and stay between the man and the basket than to try to cut him off and get beat. You will find that holding LT/L2 and RT/R2 and the same time and backing up will cause your defender to back peddle. Doing this to stay in front of the ball handler will force him into a mid range shot more often than a full drive to the basket. You will see the cpu often times, just stop and back up or pass the ball out to reset. (if your help defender steps up or over because your sliders or settings tells him to, the ball handler will simply pass to the open man and pick you apart. this normally results in easy buckets to bigs under the goal or cutters diving to the cup)
8. Play off ball to learn how defense works and watch the cpu teams play on ball.
You can watch how the cpu defends ball handlers and it will give you a good idea of what you need to do to stop penetration when you start playing on ball again. Only thing with doing that is, you better know how to play help defense with the player you are controlling or the opponent will exploit your poor team defense and lack of rotations. There is way more to playing off ball than just sitting around letting the cpu do it all for you. The object of playing off ball is being in position to help against penetration, protecting the paint against the pass, and being able to close out effectively without giving up a high percentage shot. Another aspect of off ball defense is taking responsibility for the rebounding battle and paint enforcement as a shot blocker or hard foul guy.
9. Know how you want to defend the pick and roll and adjust your defensive settings accordingly.
"Hard Hedge" means you are planning to have your roll man defender step up past the screen to block the ball handler from turning the corner to attack the paint. This makes you vulnerable to the "roll" part of the pick and roll. "Soft Hedge" means you want the roll man defender to sag down toward the paint under the screen to intercept the ball handler after he turns the corner and prevent the roll man from slipping to the rack for a pass. This make you vulnerable to a jumper from the ball handler. "Double" means you want both defenders involved to trap the ball handler to force the ball out of his hands (Lebron, Mello, etc..) or make him panic and turn the ball over. (players with low Off AWR ratings) "Switch" means you want the two defenders to switch when the pick and roll happens to make sure everyone stays covered. Only do this when you know you have bigs with quick feet, high on ball def ratings, or your team has great help defense. (players like Josh Smith make switching possible) The Pick and Roll is the easiest way for the opponent to get points in the paint and thats why it is the most used play in basketball.
10. Make sure you are comfortable with your controller settings.
There are two controller settings you really need to pay attention to on defense, Defensive Assist, and Auto Contest. Def Assist is 50 at default. This determines how strong the LT/L2 (small adjustment) restricts your movement and activates your on ball defense rating. A higher number restricts you more and a lower number gives you more freedom of movement. Play with this slider to find a setting that you are most comfortable with. Auto contest is your best friend. this determines how the cpu uses the Contest Shot Tendencies for your defenders. When set to "Manual", you must manually contest all shots yourself with the Right Stick. Pressing Y or triangle is a block attempt, not a shot contest. If you miss the block attempt, it is like the player shot an open shot. Contesting a shot lowers the shooters success rate for making the shot. The closer you are when you contest, the lower the chance of the shooter making it. Shooters with higher shoot in traffic ratings are less affected by shot contests.
With this setting at "Intense-D" the cpu will automatically contest shots for you only when you have the LT/L2 engaged according to the player's contest shot tendency rating. When it is set to "Always", the CPU uses the player's Contest Shot Tendency to override all other inputs to contest a shot automatically no matter if you want it to or not.
While I realize there are a few threads like this already, I just wanted to post a tutorial that kind of brings all the defensive concepts I've learned together in one spot. I hope this helps you to become a better defender and to understand your defensive settings' impact on your experience. With a little mastery of some of these concepts, you will be shutting down the paint in no time. If my fellow OS Members have any corrections or additional tips to add, feel free to post away!
Good luck!
I will start this tutorial by saying I am far from an expert at playing 2K. There are tons of players and members of this site that are way better than I am and probably better authorities on the subjects I'm about to speak on. So with that said, I humbly offer my take on how to play tough lock down on ball defense and cut down the number of points scored on you in the paint.
I must start this discussion with a brief chat about difficulty level. I know many of the HOF enthusiasts will probably disagree with some of the things I say but hey, it's cool man, I'm just speaking from my point of view and experience with the game. Some of these things, I have spoken directly to the developers about and others came from hours of controller throwing moments that I became determined to overcome. So, here it goes......
The default level is Pro for a reason. This is the level at which the developers tune the game. All of the players have their ACTUAL RATINGS and they aren't boosted at all except during the game as the action happens.
Now, for every level you go up in difficulty, ONLY THE CPU's team gets a 5 to 7 point ratings boost in several categories. So by the time you get to HOF, a 70 rated player is more along the lines of an 85 to 90 rated player. Difficulty levels are created for a challenge not realism.
Here is the logic..... because you are a human that can see more of the court than the player you are controlling is actually capable of, the user gains some sort of advantage. As they become more familiar with the game's programming and start to find what works vs the cpu and how to exploit those things, they gain and even bigger advantage. Making the cpu players play WAY above their natural abilities to try to level the playing field is what the difficulty adjustments are for.
While players still have the same TENDENCIES, their abilities with those tendencies are extremely exaggerated and unrealistic for the sake of challenge. Again, the players still do the things they are suppose to do but much better success rates than they are supposed to have doing them.
Some guys are so familiar with the programming of the game, and so autonomous with the controller, they have the ability to manipulate the cpu into a "normal" game-flow because of their impact on the action of the game itself. So, they need the cpu players to have superhuman abilities to have a challenge.
Having said that, the most realistic difficulty setting is Pro. The most challenging is obviously HOF. I can beat the game on HOF regularly and convincingly but actually play the game on Pro and have the most realistic simulations when I play the game that way. I don't do anything unrealistic while playing and play the game on 12 mins and control all aspects of my team from coaching adjustments, to substitutions. I also play on default simulation sliders with no slider adjustments whatsoever.
Now to the meat and potatoes, if you want to cut down the points in the paint and play better defense, you have to do a few things.......
1. Learn your personnel.
Who has the on ball defense to guard the person you are trying to stop from penetrating? Who on your team has high defensive awareness ratings? Who has low defensive awareness ratings? You have to know this because you want to back off of a penetrator and use the right stick shading to force him into your help defenders. Look behind your defender and see where the open lane is. You want to send the ball handler AWAY from the open space and into your help. The players with higher Def AWR ratings will be better at helping if you get beat.
2. Check your help defense slider in coaching settings.
If you set the help defense slider higher, players will leave their assignments and help as a priority. Players with lower Def AWR ratings don't do this very well no matter how high you put your help slider. They might help when it's not needed or simply not help at all.
3. Check your off ball defense slider in coaching settings.
If you set this slider to a higher number, off ball defenders on your team will play tighter on the players they are guarding who don't have the ball. If you have this set at 100, the help has a farther distance to travel to help when you get beat.
4. Check your on ball defense slider in coaching settings.
If you set this slider to a higher number, players will close out tighter on the players who have the ball and generally play tighter defense over all. Higher slider number means MORE PRESSURE. The tighter your defenders play, the more they rely on their on ball defense ratings to prevent the drive.
5. Check your defensive settings.
You can go in and set individual assignments for particular players on the other team. REMEMBER!!! The overall slider in coaching settings is the team slider. This is the base setting for everyone on the team. So if you select "Play Tight" your defender will play as tight as your coaching slider says you want them to play. They will prevent the jump shot but be more vulnerable against the drive. If you set it to "Moderate" they will give a little cushion so they can contest jumpers but still have time to react to the drive. If you set to "Sag off" they will give up the jump shot and it will give you the most reaction time against the drive.
6. Know your defender's on ball defense rating and how to use it.
Players with higher on ball defense ratings create more contact on ball handlers when they try to drive past you preventing them from driving altogether. Tony Allen will pretty much shut anyone in the game down from driving if you play defense right. The way you use your on ball defense rating is similar to a shooting rating. It's all about the release point. The left trigger is your small defensive adjustment trigger. This allows you to limit your movement enough to be in perfect position to activate your on ball defense score. When a ball handler begins to drive past you, let go of the left trigger and initiate contact. Players with higher ratings have more success at this than lower ones. Try it, it works. Also, while the left trigger is engaged, you can engage the right trigger against the quicker guards to cover ground quicker without over shooting the man. Cover the ground to get back in position and the then let go at the right release point.
7. Play on ball defense like football, not air hockey.
If you aren't in position to initiate on ball defense, back peddle! It's better to back up toward the goal and stay between the man and the basket than to try to cut him off and get beat. You will find that holding LT/L2 and RT/R2 and the same time and backing up will cause your defender to back peddle. Doing this to stay in front of the ball handler will force him into a mid range shot more often than a full drive to the basket. You will see the cpu often times, just stop and back up or pass the ball out to reset. (if your help defender steps up or over because your sliders or settings tells him to, the ball handler will simply pass to the open man and pick you apart. this normally results in easy buckets to bigs under the goal or cutters diving to the cup)
8. Play off ball to learn how defense works and watch the cpu teams play on ball.
You can watch how the cpu defends ball handlers and it will give you a good idea of what you need to do to stop penetration when you start playing on ball again. Only thing with doing that is, you better know how to play help defense with the player you are controlling or the opponent will exploit your poor team defense and lack of rotations. There is way more to playing off ball than just sitting around letting the cpu do it all for you. The object of playing off ball is being in position to help against penetration, protecting the paint against the pass, and being able to close out effectively without giving up a high percentage shot. Another aspect of off ball defense is taking responsibility for the rebounding battle and paint enforcement as a shot blocker or hard foul guy.
9. Know how you want to defend the pick and roll and adjust your defensive settings accordingly.
"Hard Hedge" means you are planning to have your roll man defender step up past the screen to block the ball handler from turning the corner to attack the paint. This makes you vulnerable to the "roll" part of the pick and roll. "Soft Hedge" means you want the roll man defender to sag down toward the paint under the screen to intercept the ball handler after he turns the corner and prevent the roll man from slipping to the rack for a pass. This make you vulnerable to a jumper from the ball handler. "Double" means you want both defenders involved to trap the ball handler to force the ball out of his hands (Lebron, Mello, etc..) or make him panic and turn the ball over. (players with low Off AWR ratings) "Switch" means you want the two defenders to switch when the pick and roll happens to make sure everyone stays covered. Only do this when you know you have bigs with quick feet, high on ball def ratings, or your team has great help defense. (players like Josh Smith make switching possible) The Pick and Roll is the easiest way for the opponent to get points in the paint and thats why it is the most used play in basketball.
10. Make sure you are comfortable with your controller settings.
There are two controller settings you really need to pay attention to on defense, Defensive Assist, and Auto Contest. Def Assist is 50 at default. This determines how strong the LT/L2 (small adjustment) restricts your movement and activates your on ball defense rating. A higher number restricts you more and a lower number gives you more freedom of movement. Play with this slider to find a setting that you are most comfortable with. Auto contest is your best friend. this determines how the cpu uses the Contest Shot Tendencies for your defenders. When set to "Manual", you must manually contest all shots yourself with the Right Stick. Pressing Y or triangle is a block attempt, not a shot contest. If you miss the block attempt, it is like the player shot an open shot. Contesting a shot lowers the shooters success rate for making the shot. The closer you are when you contest, the lower the chance of the shooter making it. Shooters with higher shoot in traffic ratings are less affected by shot contests.
With this setting at "Intense-D" the cpu will automatically contest shots for you only when you have the LT/L2 engaged according to the player's contest shot tendency rating. When it is set to "Always", the CPU uses the player's Contest Shot Tendency to override all other inputs to contest a shot automatically no matter if you want it to or not.
While I realize there are a few threads like this already, I just wanted to post a tutorial that kind of brings all the defensive concepts I've learned together in one spot. I hope this helps you to become a better defender and to understand your defensive settings' impact on your experience. With a little mastery of some of these concepts, you will be shutting down the paint in no time. If my fellow OS Members have any corrections or additional tips to add, feel free to post away!
Good luck!
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